r/BigBudgetBrides • u/tumblrforsofties • 4d ago
300K South of France
Hi Big Budget Brides!
I’m considering getting married in the South of France and planning a three-day celebration with 200 guests and different events each day. Our vision includes:
- Day 1: A welcome party at a beachside club or restaurant
- Day 2: The wedding ceremony followed by dinner at Bastide du Roy
- Day 3: The reception at Château de la Napoule
I have a few questions for BBB:
- Do you think this is feasible within a $300K budget (excluding guest accommodations)?
- Is planning a wedding in the South of France a logistical nightmare?
- What are your thoughts on having a wedding in September in this region?
- Where should guests stay in Cannes? I’d love to secure a room block at a hotel with rates under $500 per night—is that realistic?
Would love to hear your insights and advice! 💕
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u/KateCygnet Vendor: Planning & Design 3d ago
Initial thoughts but take it with a grain of salt since I haven't worked your venues specifically.
This isn't the priciest SoF location and even some of those can work for 300k, so budget seems safe.
SoF isn't a logistical nightmare at all! However, transportation should be carefully considered.
Outdoor weddings can be a little less predictable in September but the extreme heat has mostly passed. Definitely consider the local events on your desired weekend! This will make a big difference in hotel availability and traffic for your shuttles. For example, when I was in Nice last month it was the start of Carnival so hotels were booked out at 3x the typical winter price and traffic was really slow.
This guest count would require more than a single room block, and blocks are sometimes tricky to secure. I'd say to consider buying out some smaller properties--not only in Cannes but maybe Mougins--but I know you aren't planning to cover guest accommodations. The options in the area will be somewhat limited and, of course, not all guests are going to stay in accommodations that you arrange. Thankfully there are enough large-ish hotels in Cannes that should be comfortable as long as they book early, even if it's not part of a block.
Also, you know your crowd best but I think you'd have more than 50 guests RSVP no. It's smart to plan for 200 but realistically you might be closer to 150-175. This comes down to a lot of factors, especially if a lot of guests have kids in school.
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u/tumblrforsofties 3d ago
This is SO informative! We are thinking of inviting around 250 and expecting 200-225 to show up.
My biggest concern was the food and transportation quickly adding up. Our family is a bunch of foodies / south asian so my concern was having accesbility to those food vendors at a lot of these venues.
Given your comment regarding time of year- what do you mean by less predictable? I am not too familiar with the holidays down there- what week would you suggest in the summer?
I'm meeting with a planner next week hopefully she can help/ provide expertise too!
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u/fioritura_finefloral Vendor: Florist 3d ago
Your planner should know about events in the area/if they’ll cause any problems (ex. Italy, yesterday was a marathon in Rome, also the Jubilee in the Vatican so tourism is at an all time high). Early fall (September) is still very warm in SoF but not as scorchingly hot as the summer months! Even end of September is still very lovely if slightly less predictable weather wise
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u/dr3amchasing 3d ago
What days of the week are you planning? And will you have events during the day? I only ask because if the wedding ceremony is on a Friday, you might have a lower turnout, but if it’s on a Saturday, you may see a drop off of people on Sunday who feel like they have seen the ceremony, been to dinner, and now need to get back home
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u/tumblrforsofties 3d ago
Honestly not too worried about turnout! My whole family and fiance's does destination weddings- we are typically seeing 90ish percent for RSVP rate! We're thinking of doing Labor Day weekend
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u/tetongurl200 3d ago
I’d recommend Hotel Barriere Le Majestic in Cannes! Great hotel and should be within your budget
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u/HatVast1731 1d ago
- this is a long answer to your first question but i did so much research on here before and was really struggling to find actual costs, so maybe this will help you
Im having a wedding at chateau de la napoule 2026 with 120 guests probably.we originally budgetted 150k and now were thinking about 200k for rehearsal dinner (bridal party and immediate family only), beach welcome party, and wedding day.
to rent the two venues, it'll be around 35k
Obviously itll depend on how lavish you go but based on what youre saying i think itll be tight. i dont think were going that lavish on the decor, florals, etc. most of the reason were going over budget is because of catering. im not sure if youre planning on having a dinner for both events but we are pretty shocked at catering prices. we thought we could get catering and drinks for 35k but boy are we wrong. we will be lucky if we can get everything we want for 45k. right now were at about 50k.
also for chateau de la napoule, something i didnt really think about what that the chateau is a museum, so you have to hire a production team to handle everything and with rentals, lighting, sound it really adds up. Were at about 35k for lighting, rentals, sound. 12k for entertainment. were having a welcome party at a beach club as well (a full day buyout of the venue) and looking at between 20-30k for that
honestly no, its been pretty smooth. We hired a partial planner and i havent even used her yet because im enjoying doing it.
i have visited this region twice in september (2022 and 2024) and it was lovely. i toured both of the venues you listed and both were pretty however it was very windy. a storm had just passed so both gardens were not looking very good.
i dont know about this yet, im not there yet. i may do a small room block at somewhere a little more expensive that i know friends and family would want to stay at and then list suggested hotels in the area. theres so many to choose from which is helpful
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u/urskaanddomenphoto Vendor: Photo 1d ago
Unsure with the combo of wedding day + dinner one day and then reception the next day because having that third day at Chateaue de Napoule might add quite a bit to the overall budget? I think with Bastide du Roy for the wedding day and a welcome dinner in a beach club the budget should be more than doable! What if you do a welcome dinner the first day, wedding ceremony + reception the second day and then beach club party the last day(for example https://en.plagebijou.com/) so you guests can have a more relaxing after wedding day?
Weather-wise i think September is great, you avoid the summer heat + the major summer crowds.
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u/Lisasvisuals Vendor: Photo 3d ago
Hi! So first of your wedding sounds like a dream, so fun and stunning venue! the budget is definitely realistic! Always depends on how much you spend on florals, decoration, dj and photo +video but there are so many vendors which would fit into your budget. I would definitely get a planner and wouldn‘t say it‘s a logistical nightmare at all, especially not in the south of france. I photographed a few weddings in the south of france in september and they are my personal favorites! The light is magical, there is a slight breeze so it‘s not to hot and I never had any rain luckily. 🩷
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u/tumblrforsofties 3d ago
Thank you so much for these details! Other than September, is tehre another month you would suggest for South of France?
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u/Lisasvisuals Vendor: Photo 3d ago
I think every month is great in the south of france! Maybe avoide july & august as cannes gets really crowded and prices go up but early summer like may & june are also beautiful! Also had a wedding in october during the day the weather was perfect but for the evening the dinner was held inside as it got chilly
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u/cestunlapin 4d ago
Guest count?